Picture Manager, eBay’s paid subscription picture hosting service, will be retired in 2 phases.

Phase 1 – Starting this week – No new subscriptions will be allowed for Picture Manager Phase 2 - Existing picture manager subscribers will be unsubscribed from this service after August 2009

If you are a user of Picture Manager, you will need to move to another picture hosting service before the end of August; either eBay per-listing picture hosting or a third party self-hosting solution. You will need to unsubscribe from the service as it will become unavailable after August 2009. You can download copies of your pictures which have been uploaded on Picture Manager before unsubscribing.

Pictures uploaded by you on Picture Manager will be retained and used in current listings for a minimum of 100 days after you unsubscribe. Any applicable per-listing picture fees will apply when the pictures are reused.

We will be introducing a new upload option for hosting item pictures on eBay called “Copy Web Files” which will appear as a new tab in the Add Pictures window in your Sell Your Item form. It will allow you to type or paste URLs for picture files stored on your non-eBay web space. eBay servers will retrieve your pictures, resize them and host them on eBay servers for you to use in your listing.

The Copy Web Files tab in Add Pictures is hidden by default and will be available only to non-picture manager subscribers. To add, use the "Add or remove options" link in the pictures section of the "Create your listing" page of the Sell Your Item form.

The current self-hosting option and the eBay standard, basic and enhanced uploaders (which require your pictures be located on your computer) will continue to be available.

Any applicable picture fees are the same when using Copy Web Files as for pictures uploaded with other uploaders. The first three pictures are free for listings on eBay India. Additional pictures and other upgrade fees vary. Click here to view the fees.

The above features have been launched on eBay India.